


everybody knows the war is over (everybody knows the good guys lost)

by angstlairde



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Angst and Feels, Character Death, F/M, Gen, Heavy Angst, I'm Sorry, I'm so sorry, I've got a bad feeling about this, Sad with a Sad Ending, The Author Regrets Everything, classic star wars couple arguing in the hallway scene, they made me do it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-06
Updated: 2017-12-06
Packaged: 2019-02-11 11:01:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,377
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12933837
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angstlairde/pseuds/angstlairde
Summary: Poe steps back, done with his speech, and catches her eye as Admiral Holdo steps up. Rey swallows, unable to ignore the sick feeling curling in her gut. There’s something wrong and it won’t let her ignore it.She can’t let Poe leave.....ways you said i love you- In a way I can’t return- As a goodbye....aka the super angsty ask box fic you all will hate me for





	everybody knows the war is over (everybody knows the good guys lost)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [queenofteacups](https://archiveofourown.org/users/queenofteacups/gifts).



> *points* jadesolo made me do it!!
> 
> Title from Everybody Knows by Sigrid

Rey stands in the shadows of the briefing room, arms crossed, watching Poe closely as he talks about their latest mission about to launch. He moves confidently, which he is, and talks with authority, which he has, but never once is he arrogant, which is something she admires about him. The way he’s always kind, even when he’s aching and hurting, he’s always easy with everyone else. Rey thinks that’s how he copes, by taking care of everyone else, so he can’t dwell on what’s making him need care.

Poe steps back, done with his speech, and catches her eye as Admiral Holdo steps up. Rey swallows, unable to ignore the sick feeling curling in her gut. There’s something wrong and it won’t let her ignore it.

She can’t let Poe leave.

As soon as the meeting finishes, she weaves her way through the flood of people exiting the room to grasp Poe’s sleeve.

“I need to talk to you,” she says, desperate.

Poe nods immediately.

“Yeah. yeah, okay. let’s go,” he says, tucking her against his side to lead her out into the mostly empty hallway. Then he turns to her. “What’s going on?”

“I have a bad feeling about this,” she says, worried, more worried than he had ever seen before. “This mission - there’s something wrong, you can’t go, no one can go!”

“Rey, this mission is important,” he says, not willing to disregard her feeling, but wanting to make sure she knows. “It could totally change the tide of the war, we’d actually have a tangible chance.”

Rey rubs her head, exasperated. Why won’t he listen?

“No, you don’t understand!” she insists, stepping back to let a technician walk past. “This is different. I’ve never felt like this, never! It’s, it’s  _sick_ , I don’t like this. At all, you can’t go, no one can!”

Poe lays his hands on her shoulders, trying to calm her. He’s never seen her this insistent, this worried, ever. It made him worried.

“Rey…” he trails off. “I’ll talk to Holdo,” he says. Rey breathes a sigh of relief.

“Thank you,” she breathes, pressing her nose to his shoulder.

“That doesn’t mean she’ll call if off, and if she doesn’t, I still have to go,” he warns softly. Rey nods.

“Just go.”

…..

Rey paces the hallway anxiously, wanting to know what was being said inside Holdo’s office. The sick feeling was only getting stronger with every minute that passed, and she wanted, no, needed for this mission to be called off, and Poe to stay with her, safe.

The door slid open, and Rey looks up to see Poe standing dejected in the doorway, waves of regret sliding off him. She chokes on her next breath.

_“No.”_

“Rey, I’m so sorry,” Poe says, gathering her to his chest. “I’m so sorry.”

“No, Poe, you  _can’t_.” Her hands are tight in the lapels of his jacket.

“Rey, sweetheart, I have to, I have to,” he tells her, cupping her face in his hands. He kisses her once, twice, and rests his forehead on hers. “I’ll come back,” he says, but he feels like it’s a lie. Rey’s eyes are still shut, a furrow between her eyes that he smooths out with his thumb. “Rey,” he whispers. “I-”

“Major Dameron,” someone calls, and Poe stops. He looks at the solider.

“Yes?” he asks, trying to keep the exasperation out of his voice.

“They need you in the hanger. You too, Commander,” he says, looking at Rey.

Poe nods.

“Understood. We’ll be there.”

The private lingers for a moment, a little awe-struck, then turns and leaves.

Poe turns back to Rey and kisses her again.

“Sweetheart… be careful,” is all he says, even though Rey could have sworn she felt something else. She pulls his face back to hers, hands in his curls.

“You too. Please.”

….

She feels it before she sees it, Kylo Ren’s silencer screaming across the sky, hot on Poe’s x-wing, and four more TIEs behind him.

_No._

The First Order had been already there, blockade air-tight around the planet, and it took everything just to break through to planet-side.

Rey and Finn led the ground assault, and despite her feeling, if everyone was going, she was going to go to protect her people. Poe led the air assault, and of either of them, he was taking it worse.

He’s already lost almost half the squadron.

And now, they might lose him.

_No._

There’s a lull in the ground battle, and Rey finds cover so she can watch the dogfight. Poe is pulling maneuvers she’s never seen, and didn’t think it was possible for a humanoid to pull off. Yet there he is.

Her comlink beeps as Kylo Ren hits him, and then Poe’s x-wing is spiraling down, smoke billowing out, Kylo still on his tail.

She snatched her comm up.

“Poe?!”

“Yeah, yeah, it’s me,” he says, strangely calm, too calm, and she wishes he would shout or something, anything.

“Where are you heading, I can find you, Poe -”

“Rey, Rey, sweetheart, listen, please,” he cuts her off.

Rey chokes back a sob.

“I need you to do something for me, okay?”

Rey nods.

“Yeah, whatever you need,” she says, tears running down her face and dripping onto her hands.

“Go back to Yavin IV, for me, alright? Find my dad, and tell him - tell him what happened,” he says, and there’s tears in his voice.

Rey shakes her head, trying to force all these words out of her mouth from where they’re crammed in there, all the words she hadn’t said, all the words she should have said, all screaming in her head to let them out, but all she can squeak is,

“Poe, no, I can still save you!”

She can,  _she can_ , she and Finn, they can still save him, just let them  _help_.

“Rey,” he says, voice thick, “Sweetheart,  _please_ , just do that for me. Rey!”

He sounds so terrified now, that calm from early gone, and he’s so, so scared, and she can feel it and it terrifies her. She wants to tell him so much, so many things, but all that will come out is his name.

“Poe!”

He can’t go, he can’t,  _he can’t_ , not another person she loves, gone. She can hear Poe’s breathing pick up, and she wants to say something but she can’t, and then Poe’s voice is coming over the comms again.

“Rey, I love you!  _I love you_ , I lov -”

There’s static on the comms and an explosion on the horizon, and it feels like her heart’s been ripped from her chest, and she can’t breathe. She doubles over,  _no, Poe, not him._

Someone’s screaming, raw and aching; Rey realizes it’s her.

 _I love you, I love you, too, so much, so, so much_ , and now all she has is pain that will be a part of her forever.

….

The Falcon touches down gently on the landing pad in the Dameron’s backyard. Kes Dameron exits the house, smiling, ready to see his son again, and Rey, so doesn’t seem to leave his side, or maybe - probably, knowing how he was with Shara - it’s the other way around.

The ramp lowers slowly, hissing, and Rey’s gray boots are visible before the rest of her is. BB-8 is behind her, beeping mournfully, and Rey can’t look at him.

Kes frowns, wondering what was wrong, and why Poe hadn’t shown yet. He had a bad feeling.

“Where’s Poe?” he asks, hesitantly, not sure he wants to know the answer.

Rey finally looks at him, and Kes needs to sit down.

Not Poe too. Not him. At least when Shara died he had Poe.

Now he is alone.

A few small  _plinks_ on the metal of the ramp has Kes looking up at Rey as she tries to wipe her eyes before he sees.

Well. Maybe he isn’t so alone.

“Come into the house, Rey,” he says, holding out his arm. She looks up at him, looking exhausted, from the stress of fighting and of dealing with his death, then stumbles down the ramp and collides with him.

The poor thing. She has friends, for sure, but it seems paternal affection is sadly lacking, especially after Leia’s death.

“Let’s go.”

**Author's Note:**

> i suddenly realize that i could have written this and not had him die but *shrugs* what can ya do


End file.
